Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 13

Board 13 – Dealer North – All Vul

My hand: 4 3 2 A Q 8 7 A K Q 4 3 5

Two passes to me. I open 1 diamond. West passes and partner bids 1 heart. East gets in there with 3 clubs (weak)... I can't imagine why he wouldn't want to open 3C but wants to overcall them after we've each bid a suit. I guess I have a hard time finding out if we should be in 4 hearts or not now, but if he just opens 3C I don't even know hearts is an option. I decide to blast to 4 hearts and everyone passes. East leads the A of clubs.


North
A J 9 7
J 9 5 3 2
5
K J 4



EAST
A

SOUTH
4 3 2
A Q 8 7
A K Q 4 3
5


West North East South

Pass Pass 1
Pass 1 3 4
Pass Pass Pass

I have 1 spade, 3 diamonds, a club (thanks to the lead), and somewhere between 3 and 5 hearts. I can get an extra trick by ruffing a club in hand. I can get another one by setting up my long diamond if they split 4-3. I might be able to ruff a spade on board as well.

Loserwise I'm losing a club for sure. I have 3 spade losers but they're slow so I can probably pitch them. I may lose 2 hearts if... Wait, how do I lose 2 hearts? If I lead up to the Q and then cash the A I lose 2 to stiff K in West. Just cashing the A means I lose 2 to any singleton that I don't guess. That's worse, and I don't see any other viable plays. Well, lets see what happens...

A-5-6-4. East shifts to a spade, which is unfortunate. Now I have pressure to find the right play now. I consider ducking this but I doubt he'll play another spade. He'll probably shift to a diamond and prevent me from finessing hearts. So I win. K-2-8-A.

Cashing the K of clubs only hurts when East started with 8 which seems unlikely. K-7-3 of spades-T.

I play the 2 of hearts and East plays the T. I can no longer lose 2 heart tricks. I don't see what West can do to hurt me if he wins the K here, so I finesse as planned. 2-T-Q-K.

He cashes the K of spades and then shifts to the J of diamonds. I guess if East was void this would be rather unfortunate and I'll wish I'd just safetied by skipping the heart finesse. He doesn't ruff it. I draw two more rounds of trumps and claim. Making 4.


NORTH
A J 9 7
J 9 5 3 2
5
K J 4


WEST
Q T 8 6
K 6 4
J T 8 6
T 6


EAST
K 5
T
9 7 2
A Q 9 8 7 3 2


SOUTH
4 3 2
A Q 8 7
A K Q 4 3
5


Professor Jack thinks I'm awesome.

On the replay the auction goes the same. The play changes at trick one when East decides to lead his stiff heart instead of cashing the club A. West wins with the K and returns a spade. Jack finesses and loses to the K. Now East cashes his A of clubs. Jack is up. Making 4.

I go back and force East to return a spade instead of cashing his A of clubs. It doesn't matter since diamonds split 4-3 and Jack can set up his 5th diamond.

I go back again and force West to play a club when he gets in on trick 1. It still doesn't matter since diamonds split 4-3.

I go all the way back and force East to lead a low spade. For some reason Jack drops the J under the Q. Nothing matters. This hand is destined to be 4H making it seems.


During the bidding I considering doubling 3C but I was worried it would be a penalty double. I replayed to find out and it was. We put them down 2 for only -500. I went back and bid 3H and partner raises to 4. I went back and passed and he bids 3NT. I pull to 4H. Given all that I think blasting to 4H was probably wrong...

Nick: 620
Jack: 620
IMPs: +0 (9 total)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 12

Board 12 – Dealer West – NS Vul

My hand: T 7 6 5 2 K Q 8 4 K A 7 3

West and partner pass. East opens 1 diamond. I double. West bids 1 spade. Partner bids 2 hearts. East bids 2 no. I pass, West raises to 3. Partner passes. East pulls to 4 spades. Is the 5-0 trump split enough to double on? I think so. Everyone passes. Partner leads the 4 of spades.


North
4



EAST
A Q J
A 3
A Q 8 7 2
J 9 5

SOUTH
T 7 6 5 2
K Q 8 4
K
A 7 3


West North East South
Pass Pass 1 Double
1 2 2NT Pass
3NT Pass 4 Double1
Pass Pass Pass
1Penalty Double

Guess it isn't a 5-0 trump break after all. I'm going to get to take a spade and a club for sure. I think I can brute force a heart, so I just need to score my stiff K of diamonds or to have partner show up with a club trick as well. Dummy wins this trick with the A of trump. 4-A-2-3. Dummy then plays the J of clubs.

Now, I know declarer has 4 spades. I think partner has 4 hearts, so declarer would have 3. He probably doesn't have a lot of diamonds since they didn't run from 4 spades doubled, so I'm thinking he has 2 diamonds and therefore probably 4 clubs. My ace isn't going away, so I duck. J-3-6-Q.

Partner returns the T of hearts. Dummy ducks. Partner shouldn't have the J for this lead, so declarer likely has Jxx. I insert the Q. T-3-Q-7. I draw a round of trump. 5-8-3 of diamonds-J. Declarer cashes the A of hearts. A-4-5-6.

He then cashes the A of diamonds. Boo! A-K-6-4. He plays the Q of diamonds. I ruff with the 6 and get overruffed with the 9. Huh. So declarer is 4-3-1-5?

He ruffs his J of hearts with dummy's queen. J-2-Q of spades-8.

Dummy leads the 5 of clubs. If I'm right about declarer's hand he has the K of spades and 4 clubs left. Partner has one club left. There's nothing I can do about my low club, it's going to lose a trick unless partner can win with his last club. So, I duck. 5-7-T-8. Declarer puts me in with the A of clubs.

I cash the K of hearts and declarer pitches a club. Whatever. We each get a spade trick at the end. Down 2.


NORTH
4
T 9 6 2
J T 9 5 4 3
Q 8


WEST
K 9 8 3
J 7 5
6
K T 6 4 2


EAST
A Q J
A 3
A Q 8 7 2
J 9 5


SOUTH
T 7 6 5 2
K Q 8 4
K
A 7 3


Professor Jack disagrees with my initial takeout double. He says it's for takeout. Of course it is! I meant it as takeout! I have both majors, a singleton in the bid suit, and 9 points outside of my stiff king. He wants me to bid 1 spade with my terrible, terrible suit. Overcalling on ten fifth is a good way to get partner to lead a spade against a suit contract and want to kill you.

He then disagrees with my second bid when I passed 2NT. He would bid 3 hearts. I felt that I'd stretched a little with my initial double and didn't really need to play a 4-4 fit.

He then disagrees with my penalty double, but at least there he says double is acceptable. He would have passed.


On the replay the auction goes differently. My chair overcalls 1 spade. West bids 1NT and East bids 3NT. North stayed out of the auction entirely.

North for some reason doesn't lead a spade. I'd like to see the justification for not leading partner's suit and also not leading your own 6 card suit...

The play goes about as expected except when dummy leads a club my seat hopped with the A. This gave declarer a chance to make by dropping North's now stiff Q. Instead when South eventually plays a club West finesses for the Q instead of dropping it. Down 1.

Nick: 300
Jack: 50
IMPs: +6 (9 total)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 11

Board 11 – Dealer South – No Vul

My hand: 7 Q J 5 4 Q 3 A K Q 9 5 3

I open 1 club, West passed and partner responds 1 spade which gets alerted. Likely because we bypass diamonds to bid a major, I will have to find out after the hand. I bid 2 clubs. Partner jumps to 5 clubs. Part of me wants to keep bidding (his clubs suck so he probably has my losers covered, right?) but I pass. West leads the A of hearts.


North
A J 4 3
3 2
A K J 5
J 8 6

West
A



SOUTH
7
Q J 5 4
Q 3
A K Q 9 5 3


West North East South
1
Pass 11 Pass 2
Pass 5 All Pass
1Walsh

Well, it sure looks like I have 6 clubs, a spade, and 4 diamonds. They have 2 hearts off the top. They cash one of them and then switch to a trump. I draw trump and play A and ruff a spade in case I can catch someone with KQ or KQx to set up my J. I don't, so I lose the second heart. Making 5.


NORTH
A J 4 3
3 2
A K J 5
J 8 6


WEST
9 5 2
A K T 7
T 8 6
T 4 2


EAST
K Q T 8 6
9 8 6
9 7 4 2
7


SOUTH
7
Q J 5 4
Q 3
A K Q 9 5 3




Professor Jack complains about my 2 club bid. He thinks I should have bid 2 hearts because we haven't ruled hearts out as trump yet. This hand doesn't feel like a reverse to me, and I think we have ruled hearts out as trump unless partner can bid them over 2 clubs. The alert for his 1 spade bid was Walsh, showing 6+ points, 4 spades and fewer than 4 hearts or showing 6+ points, 5+ spades, and hearts shorter or as long as spades. So, he could be 5-4 or better, but then I don't think he's going to sell out to 2 clubs. Or if he is, because his hand sucks, I'm happy playing in our 6-1 trump fit with my good suit.


On the replay the auction goes off the rails. It starts 1 club - pass - 1 diamond. They're not playing Walsh so they don't bypass the 4 card diamond suit. This lets East get in with 1 spade. South does reverse and bids 2 hearts. West bids 2 spades, alerted as preemptive. (He took away exactly 1 bid and opened up double as an option so I don't know how 'preemptive' that was.) North jumps to 4NT, alerted as ace asking for no trump. South bids 5 diamonds to show an ace and West doubles for penalty. North bids 6 clubs and West again doubles for penalty.

West leads a low spade to start. Declarer wins on board, draws 3 rounds of trump, and plays a heart. West wins his K and switches to diamonds. West is doing everything he can to avoid cashing the setting trick except pitch his A of hearts. Eventually he is forced to take it. Down 1.

Nick: 400
Jack: -100
IMPs: 11 (3 total)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 10

Board 10 – Dealer East – All Vul

My hand: A A 9 3 J T 9 6 A T 9 3 2

East opens 1 club. I have to pass. West passes too, and partner gets in with 1 spade. East passes. I don't know what my bids even mean here. Does 2 clubs show clubs or a good hand? Am I strong enough to just bid 3NT? I assume 1NT would be 6-9, so 2NT would be 10-12. My 13 should be ok for 3NT then... But I'm not sure where we'd come to 9 tricks. I think I'll just start with 2 clubs and learn what it means after the hand. Partner alerts it so it must mean something... He then jumps to 3 spades as the opponents keep passing. Ok, fine, 3NT it is. Partner disagrees and pulls to 4 spades. I give in and pass. East leads the K of clubs.



North
Q T 8 6 5 3
J 5 4
K Q 7
J



EAST
K

SOUTH
A
A 9 3
J T 9 6
A T 9 3 2


West North East South
1 Pass
Pass 1 Pass 21
Pass 3 Pass3NT
Pass 4 All Pass
1Constructive Raise

Wow. Partner bid spades THREE times on QT 6th. (I wonder if my club bid supported spades?) I'm going to lose 2 hearts, a diamond, and several spades. I can deal with the heart losers by setting up clubs (helped by the K lead and the stiff J on board), though this adds in a club loser. I could probably ruff out clubs instead, but I can't draw trump at the same time so I can't see how that would gain. K-A-4-J. I play back a club. T-5-4 of hearts-Q. East shifts to a heart. I pop the A. 2-A-8-5.

My hearts are now exposed, so I need to pitch on my high club now. I cash the A of spades first just in case West only had 2 clubs and 1 spade. A-7-3-2. Then I play the 9 of clubs. 9-6-J of hearts-7.

I don't want to tap myself so I lead a low diamond. 6-3-Q-2. There are 4 spades outstanding. The KJ94. Maybe I should have tapped myself to try to shorten my trumps?I don't think I had entries to ruff enough times, so that's probably silly. I can't see any way to avoid losing 2 spades if they split 3-3. Can I avoid losing 3 spades if they split 4-2?

Yes, but I have to guess what spade is now stiff. If it's the 4, I'm screwed. If it's the 9 I need to play the T or the Q. If it's the J I need to play anything but the T. If it's the K I need to play anything but the Q. So it seems like I should play one of the Q or T. I decide to play the Q. Q-K-3 of hearts-4.

East returns a club. West pitches the 7 of hearts. I ruff. I lead a spade. They both follow, and I lose the A of diamonds. Down 1.


NORTH
Q T 8 6 5 3
J 5 4
K Q 7
J


WEST
J 7 4
K T 8 7
5 4 3
6 5 4


EAST
K 9 2
Q 6 2
A 8 2
K Q 8 7


SOUTH
A
A 9 3
J T 9 6
A T 9 3 2


Professor Jack has the following comment on my 2 club bid... "Jack did not consider 2 clubs. He wonders what you have in mind." Jack would pass. The alert was a "constructive raise" showing 9+ points and 3+ spades. At least that explains all the spade bids, though I wonder what was wrong with 2 spades for his second bid. Professor Jack has the same comment for my 3NT bid, and wants me to pass there as well.


On the replay my seat passes and they play 1 spade. Jack plays the hand a little dangerously but ends up losing the same tricks I did for up 2.

Nick: -100
Jack: +140
IMPs: -6 (-8 total)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 9

Board 9 – Dealer North – EW Vul

My hand: Q 4 A 9 2 A Q J 7 4 3 9 2

Partner opens 3 clubs (weak) and lefty passes. I pass, and so does West. East leads the 4 of hearts.

North
K 3 2
Q
8 5
K J T 7 6 5 4



EAST
4

SOUTH
Q 4
A 9 2
A Q J 7 4 3
9 2


West North East South

3 Pass Pass
Pass



I have 5 clubs, 1 heart, 1 diamond, and 1 spade. I can get my 9th trick by setting up a diamond but I have entry issues and it might get ruffed if I don't draw trump first. I can try to ruff a spade on board, but they can counter that by drawing 2 rounds of trump. I can float the lead to my stiff Q and score it whenever East underled his K. I can pick up the Q of trumps. None of these are sure things, but I like my chances by attacking spades right away. I get my ruff unless they draw 2 rounds of trump which may pick up the club Q for me. If it doesn't I can still fall back on the diamond finesse...

4-A-7-Q. I lead the Q of spades off of board. Q-5-2-6. 4-A-3-9. Well, that was easy. I now have a 9th trick by taking a second spade. That wasn't even one of my first choices... I wonder why West didn't cover my Q?

West returns the K of hearts which I ruff. K-4 of clubs-6-2. I decide to draw trump from hand, leading out the 5. 5-8-9-Q. West returns a diamond, leading up to AQJ on board. East plays the K and I win the A. I draw the rest of the trump as they split 2-2. I get the rest, making 4. Everything was onside, so I could have made 5.


NORTH
K 3 2
Q
8 5
K J T 7 6 5 4


WEST
A T 8 7 5
K J T 7
9 6
Q 3


EAST
J 9 6
8 6 5 4 3
K T 2
A 8


SOUTH
Q 4
A 9 2
A Q J 7 4 3
9 2


Professor Jack disagrees with my choice to draw trump when I ruffed the heart. He says this costs an overtrick, which it does the way the hand was set up but I'm not sure what he wants me to do. He says to cash the K of spades (fine) but then what does he want from me? Finesse the diamond to hand and then finesse clubs? This works, but only when East has the diamond K and West has the club Q. And we're quibbling about overtricks when my main goal at imps is to make the contract.


On the replay the auction goes the same. The play differs at trick one when Jack decides to finesse the opening heart lead and loses to the K. West then decides to help out by cashing the A of spades, setting up the KQ for declarer. He then leads another spade to dummy's Q. Declarer takes the club finesse and picks up Qx. Also making 4.

Nick: 130
Jack: 130
IMPs: +0 (-2 total)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Great Canadian Board Game Blitz

This coming weekend (Aug 28th-30th) is Fan eXpo and one of the things going on there is a board game tournament called the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz. They've been running a series of preliminary events over the last while (I think they launched at Fan eXpo last year but I didn't go so I'm not sure) with the same general tournament format with a grand prize of entry to Fan eXpo to play in the main event. It looks like entry is open to anyone who goes to Fan eXpo but space was saved for the winners. I won the tournament in Toronto a month ago so my entry to Fan eXpo is free, woo! Other people can show up to play though, so I'm going to talk a bit about the format in the hopes of getting other people to go. (Probably would have worked better if I did this a few weeks ago but I'm lazy and you all knew that.)

The tournament is 5 rounds long and each round has a list of games that can be played. They rank everyone in order (by current record first and then randomly as a tie-breaker) and the person at the top of the list gets to choose one of the available games to play. They take the game and go to a table to set it up. Then #2 on the list can either choose one of the other games and start a table of it or they can sit down with #1 and play the game they chose. Go down the list repeating for each person in turn with a couple restrictions:

  • each game can only be chosen once, so if there's already a table up you can't make a new one of it
  • games can fill up, so if a game is chosen and fills before you get to pick then you just can't play it
  • you can only start a new game while there isn't room for all the remaining players to play existing games (so if 20 people are playing and 4 5-player games have been chosen no new games can start; you have to sit down at an existing non-full table)
As a consequence of these rules picking in the first n players (where n is the number of games to start) is very powerful. Picking early enough to guarantee a spot in your best game is very, very good. (You need to be in the first 4 to guarantee this since it's possible the first 4 people will all play the same 4 player game which you really wanted to play too. Unlikely, but possible.) Picking last is terrible because you may not get to pick at all. There's one empty seat, go sit at it.

The first round is ordered randomly but after that it's be record. This means winning the first round gives you a lot of power going forward and losing it badly could scuttle your chances of doing well. For example, in the event I won the first round games were:

  • Bohnanza
  • Ingenious
  • Modern Art
  • Roll Through The Ages
  • San Juan
  • Ticket To Ride
Of these 6 games I'd say I'm an expert at one of them. (San Juan). I'm decent at Ticket To Ride. I know the rules to Bohnanza and Modern Art but I'm not very good at either. I have never played Ingenious or Roll Through The Ages. I'd give myself good odds of winning at San Juan and of placing top 2 at Ticket To Ride, but after that I don't like my chances. If I was forced to play Modern Art I'd probably come last every time.

I ended up picking 2nd overall (go random!) and got to start a game of San Juan, but if I wasn't in the top 4 people I don't think a San Juan game even would have started. I pretty much got stragglers at my table (people who didn't want to play San Juan but didn't have much choice) so I doubt anyone else would have started a game of it. Winning the first round meant I got to start a game in round 2 (which I then won) which meant I got to keep starting games. By getting lucky to start the event (and then actually winning the game I picked) I got to control my destiny the entire tournament. In most of the game pools there were only 1 or 2 games I've played very much (if that) so it was a strong factor in how well I actually did. If I don't win my first round I don't get to start a game of Puerto Rico and probably end up having to play Endeavor (which I've played once) or Princes of Florence (which I actively hate).

It's a little unfortunate that people who do poorly in round 1 have little control over what they get to play for the next couple rounds and maybe the whole tournament. If you keep getting forced to learn new games or play things you're bad at (stay away from me, Ra!) then you're going to stay down at the bottom of the list. I'm really thinking if that happens to me this weekend I'll just drop out and do other Fan eXpo things rather than be forced to play a game I don't enjoy/don't think I can win.

They're expecting a big turnout this weekend, so there are 9 possible games each round. Every round has a couple games I've never played before, so I could be in for a rough go at it. (Though at least then I get to learn new games... Having to play Carcassonne or Settlers really doesn't appeal.)

But I don't know what to do to 'fix' it. It's a fun format as far as getting to spend a day playing a bunch of different games with different people. It's just not the best for competitive balance, I don't think.

At any rate, it should be fun, and you should go too!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 8

Board 8 – Dealer West – No Vul

My hand: Q 7 6 9 5 3 K Q J 6 4 7 4

West opens 1 club, partner passes and East bids 1 diamond. I pass and they finish off the 1 level with 1 heart, 1 spade, and 1 no trump. East then bids 3 no which finishes the auction. Partner leads the 2 of clubs.



North
2



East
A J T 9
J 4 2
A 7 5 2
T 9

SOUTH
Q 7 6
9 5 3
K Q J 6 4
7 4


West North East South
1Pass 1 Pass
1 Pass 1 pass
1NT Pass 3NTAll Pass


Partner lead the 2 so he should only have 4 clubs. West has 5 and we've given him a good head start on setting them up since I can't beat dummy's 9. I think I'm supposed to signal attitude here, but if I can't beat the 9 my attitude should be pretty clear. So, I signal count, and play the 7. 2-9-7-6. Delcarer likes partner's suit so he continues it. T-4-8-A. Partner is stubborn and returns the 5. Dummy pitches the 2 of diamonds and I pitch the 3 of hearts. Declarer wins, but with the Q.

Declarer now switches gears and leads the T of hearts. I don't know if he's trying to be funny or what, but it holds. T-6-2-5.

Having swindled a heart trick he goes back to clubs. J-3-5 of diamonds-9 of hearts. He then cashes the K of clubs. K-3 of spades-9 of spades-6 of diamonds.

Back to hearts, where declarer's Q holds. Q-8-4-4 of diamonds.

Declarer now leads a spade and finesses into my hand. 2-4-T-Q. I win and play diamonds. K-9-8-A. Declarer plays another diamond, endplaying me into leading into his AJ of spades. Making 3 somehow.


NORTH
K 8 4 3
A 8 6
T 8
A 5 3 2


WEST
5 2
K Q T 7
9 3
K Q J 8 6


EAST
A J T 9
J 4 2
A 7 5 2
T 9


SOUTH
Q 7 6
9 5 3
K Q J 6 4
7 4


Professor Jack's first complaint is with my club signal. He says it is attitude and I should have played the 4. I wonder what hand he built for me that wanted a club return but didn't feel like beating the 9, but I guess it was a mistake. Assume computer partner can't make that logical leap.

He then disagrees with my 5 of hearts. He wants me to signal high here to show an even number. I started with an odd number but I have an even number left. I guess he wants me to signal present count?

Finally he disagrees with my second diamond pitch, since it lets the contract make. Turns out that since partner had the K of spades that is true. Maybe I should have been able to work that out, but I didn't even try to. Definitely a mistake here.


On the replay the auction is the same. The play goes off in a bizarre direction and South gets in with the Q of spades before his partner has taken either of his aces. All he has to do is play a diamond and setting the contract is easy. So, he returns a heart. With spades solved declarer comes to 9 tricks without ever having to touch diamonds. He had a play for an overtrick if he could see all 4 hands but chose to guarantee just in.

I almost bid 2 diamonds on my second turn as lead directional which would have meant we set 3NT easily. I decide to play again to see if that helps. Turns out it just gets doubled. I held it to down 1 (I knew all 4 hands so that's almost like cheating, but my tricks were 2 aces, 4 trumps, and one of the KQ of spades so I think I could have gotten them anyway.) Better than letting 3NT make, worse than setting it.

Nick: -400
Jack: -400
IMPs: 0 (-2 total)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 7

Board 7 – Dealer South – All Vul

My hand: K J 9 9 7 2 9 7 3 K 7 5 3

I wonder if there's a setting somewhere to give me good hands. Anyone I can bribe?

I pass, West opens 1NT and partner bids 2 diamonds. We're playing Cappelletti now, so this should be 4-5 or better in the majors. I bid 2 hearts which gets passed out. West leads the Q of diamonds.



North
8 7 5 4
A K Q 5 3
K T 4
Q

WEST
Q



SOUTH
K J 9
9 7 2
9 7 3
K 7 5 3


West North East South
Pass
1NT 21 Pass 2
Pass Pass Pass
1Cappelletti

I will lose a club, 2 diamonds, and somewhere between 1 and 3 spades. As long as trumps are 3-2 I won't lose any hearts, but I will lose one if they're 4-1. My side has 21 points, and West has 15-17, so East has 2-4 points. From the lead I'm thinking he has the A of diamonds and West has the rest. If so then I really am losing at least 2 spades. Maybe I can endplay him and force him to lead a spade for me. I don't think ducking the lead can help me and I might as well make sure East has the A so I play the K. Q-K-A-3. East returns a spade. I know West has the AQ, so I might as well play the 9 and hope he doesn't have the T. He does. 6-9-T-4. He then cashes the A. A-5-2-J. My K is set up, but it gets ruffed away. 3-7-8 of hearts-K.

East comes back with a club. 8-3-A-Q. West cashes the J of diamonds as the setting trick. J-4-5-9. Then they ruff another spade, ruffing with the T so I can't overruff. I finally win a trick and can draw trump. Down 2.


NORTH
8 7 5 4
A K Q 5 3
K T 4
Q


WEST
A Q T 3
J 6
Q J 8 6
A J 9


EAST
6 2
T 8 4
A 5 2
T 8 6 4 2


SOUTH
K J 9
9 7 2
9 7 3
K 7 5 3


Professor Jack has no problem with anything I did. Since I pretty much just sat there and got beat like a pinata I'm not too surprised.


On the replay NS is playing natural overcalls, and North just blasts in there with 2 hearts. East is on lead this time, and starts with a low spade. The play goes similarly until the part where East ruffs in and has to lead a club. West inserts the J instead of winning his A, losing to stiff Q. This lets declarer draw trump and escape for down 1. I can't imagine how that could have been the right play, but it costs my team 3 IMPs.

Nick: -200
Jack: -100
IMPs: -3 (-2 total)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 6

Board 6 – Dealer East – EW Vul

My hand: J 3 A J 7 2 9 7 5 J T 9 7

East opens 1 diamond and I pass. West bids 1 spade, partner gets in there with 2 hearts and East jumps to 3 spades. I want to let partner know about my hearts and figure we won't go down too many and bid 4 hearts. West then bids 4NT Blackwood. East has 0 or 4 and they settle in 5 spades. Partner leads the T of hearts.



North
T



EAST
K T 9 7
Q 6
K Q 4 3 2
K 4

SOUTH
J 3
A J 7 2
9 7 5
J T 9 7


West North East South
1 Pass
1 2 3 4
4NT1 Pass 52Pass
5 Pass PassPass
1Ace asking for spades
20 or 4 Aces


T-Q-A-3. I return the J and West ruffs in with the 2 of spades. Partner plays the 5.

Declarer draws trump. 4-8-K-3. 7-J-A-4 of hearts.

Declarer now shifts to clubs. 2-3-K-7.

And now over to diamonds. 2-5-J-6. T-A-3-7. Unless partner has the A of clubs dummy is up. He doesn't. Making 5.



NORTH
8
K T 9 8 5 4
A 8 6
Q 8 3


WEST
A Q 6 5 4 2
3
J T
A 6 5 2


EAST
K T 9 7
Q 6
K Q 4 3 2
K 4


SOUTH
J 3
A J 7 2
9 7 5
J T 9 7


Professor Jack thinks 4 hearts was a bad idea and would have passed. He has no justification for this. I think white on red it was fine. He also disagrees with returning a heart when I won the A. I don't think it's that unreasonable that partner only had 5 bad hearts for his overcall but maybe I've been playing with Andrew too long. Leading a diamond up to KQ432 which is what Jack wants me to do seems wrong though. Not sure what is right though. He also disagrees with the 7 of clubs since it shows an odd number when I have an even number. He's right, and I didn't even think about it which is a problem, but in this case it didn't matter. I doubt partner cares and maybe declarer does so lying is probably right.


On the replay the auction goes the same until I bid 4H when Jack passes. This allows West to cuebid clubs. East with an aceless minimum doesn't care and signs off in 4S. I wish they actually only had 10 tricks instead of 11 so my bid would have pushed them too high...

In the play Jack returns a heart when he wins the A. I wish Professor Jack and real Jack listened to each other... Not that it matters. Defense takes two aces, declarer takes the rest. Making 5.

Nick: -650
Jack: -650
IMPs: +0 (1 total)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 5

Board 5 – Dealer North – NS Vul

My hand: 7 3 Q J 8 J 7 4 K Q 9 5 2

Partner passes and East opens 1 spade. I'm crazy so I overcall 2 clubs. West bids 2 hearts, partner bids 3 clubs. East jumps to 4NT, alerted as ace asking for hearts. West shows 2 aces, East bids 6 hearts. Partner leads the 6 of clubs.



North
6



EAST
A Q T 9 2
K T 6 4 3
A 3 2


SOUTH
7 3
Q J 8
J 7 4
K Q 9 5 2


West North East South
Pass 1 2
2 3 4 NT1 Pass
52 Pass 6All Pass
1Ace asking for hearts
22 Aces


Declarer pitches the 2 of diamonds. I play the Q to force the A. He shifts to the 2 of hearts and partner pitches the 7 of clubs. Guess I have a trump trick now, so we need to find one more somewhere. West has two aces so we don't have any fast tricks and will need to set one up somewhere. Spades looks like a lost cause. Clubs certainly is. That leaves diamonds. If I lead low and partner has KQ we can set up a trick. If I lead the J and partner has KT we can as well, so I do that. Dummy plays the 3 on the heart trick, so I win the first one with the 8 and return the J of diamonds.

J-6-9-A.

Declarer draws two more rounds of trump, with partner pitching the 3 and 4 of clubs. Dummy shifts to spades. 2-3-K-8. 5-4-Q-7. Maybe partner has J-x left?

Dummy leads the 3 of diamonds. 3-4-K-T. So much for that plan. They cross ruff the rest. Making 6.


NORTH
J 8 6 4

Q T 9
J 8 7 6 4 3


WEST
K 5
A 9 7 5 2
K 8 6 5
A T


EAST
A Q T 9 2
K T 6 4 3
A 3 2



SOUTH
7 3
Q J 8
J 7 4
K Q 9 5 2



Wow. Partner had SIX card support. Andrew would have flown in with 5 clubs instead of a wimpy 3 clubs and they wouldn't have been able to use Blackwood. We're only down 3, even, so if they just double us we make out like bandits at -800. Grr.


Professor Jack thinks 2 clubs was an overbid because it promises 4 playing tricks and I only had 3. He also thinks shifting to the J of diamonds was wrong because you're suppose to play low from Jxx and also because he'd return a trump. I can see his point about the clubs (though it should have worked) and maybe he's right that I should just return trump and see what tricks declarer can manage to lose himself.


On the replay they have a vastly different auction with lots of cue-bids terminating in West bidding blackwood instead of East. They still end up in 6 hearts. Without a crazy club bid from his partner North leads the T of diamonds. It doesn't matter as they just cross-ruff and cash aces the same as they did at my table for a push.


I decided to replay the hand as both NS and jump to 5C. Turns out East just bids 6H straight up. However, I did notice that I'd have opened the North hand. Stupid needing 2 of the top 5 to preempt... However, the bidding then goes 3C-4C-5C-6H. No matter what we do, they get to 6 hearts.

Nick: -980
Jack: -980
IMPs: +0 (1 total)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 4

Natural NT interference annoys and confuses me, so I decided to dive in and edit my card. Turns out there's lots of little things to change, here's a summary of what I changed from SAYC.

  • Opening style was Enhanced Rule of 20, 11 HCP needed. I dropped that to Rule of 20, 10 HCP needed. I'd put the second slider lower if I could.
  • Inverted minors on. I'm not really comfortable with these but Andrew wanted to play it when we were clubbing so I might as well practice. I can't find a criss-cross option, sadly.
  • Jacoby 2NT on. Bergen complex on.
  • Walsh on. I've never heard of this and will probably screw it up but the help file makes it sound useful. Screw you, diamonds.
  • Weak jump shifts on.
  • The Overcalling box was set to mainstream. (Maybe this is why Jack complained about my 1S overcall on board 2?) I move this to Aggressive.
  • I unchecked 'Heavy upper range overcall' which will force Jack to start with a double when he has a really good hand.
  • I lowered the range on a 1NT overcall to 15-17. Sadly, it won't let me turn this into raptor.
  • I set our NT defense to Cappelletti in both seats.
  • I switch from Stayman to Stayman with 2NT reply. Seems like it could be useful.
  • I turn on 4 way transfers. And Texas transfers.
  • I turn on Dutch Puppet Stayman over 2NT.
  • I switch preempt bidding style from Semi-solid to Not-solid. The help file claims I need to have at least 2 of the top 5 and some trick somewhere to do this. Jack is going to be disappointed.
  • I turn on Leaping Michaels. Never used it before but it sounds fun.
  • I switch from Blackwood to Roman Keycard 1430.
  • I turn on DOPI.
  • I turn on splinters.
  • I turn off competitive doubles since I don't know what they are and the help file doesn't help.
  • I turn on support and responsive doubles. (I typoed that as responsible doubles to start. I wouldn't turn that on if it existed, since I don't guarantee any of my bids are responsible.)
  • I switch 4th suit from forcing to gameforcing.
  • Michaels style is a cryptic box. I can choose from constructive, aggressive, very constructive, or very aggressive. I don't know what these mean. I choose very aggressive and hope it means I can bid with any 5-5s.
  • I turn on Sandwiches. Yum!
  • I turn off Unassuming cuebid. I don't know what that means and it isn't in the help file at all. I'm going to make assumptions!
  • I turn on Gambling 3NT.
  • I turn on weak jumps in competition.
  • I force opening leads to be A from AK.



Board 4 – Dealer West – All Vul

My hand: K 8 7 3 J 9 5 J 6 5 4 6 4

West passes, partner opens 1NT and East passes. My hand has nothing useful to say, so I pass. West does as well, and East leads the A of diamonds.





North
Q T
A K 7 4
T 9 8
A Q 9 8



EAST
A

SOUTH
K 8 7 3
J 9 5
J 6 5 4
6 4



West North East South
Pass 1 NT Pass Pass
Pass


I have 1 spade, 2 hearts, 1 club, and 1 (eventual) diamond trick. I need to find 2 more tricks and all three other suits have options, but none are really great. I play low. A-4-3-8. East switches, for some reason, to the J of clubs. This gives me one more club trick for sure and might help get a third, but it does slow down my diamond trick. J-4-7-Q.

I go back to diamonds. 9-Q-5-7. East cashes the K. K-6-6 of spades-T. East returns to clubs. 3-6-K-A. I can brute force another club trick and it's only a bad idea if one of them has 5. I don't really want to break another suit, so I play a club. 8-T-3 of spades-2. East puts me right back on board, so I guess I get to break a suit after all. 5-5 of hearts-4 of spades-9.

I need 4 tricks and I have AK of hearts, J of diamonds, and one of the KQ of spades. But I don't have entries to cash them. I can lead up to the J of hearts to build one, but then I lose my hearts on board because I pitched wrong. Guess I should have planned ahead, huh? I do it anyway as I don't want to touch spades. 4-Q-9-2. East returns a heart, forcing me to choose where to win this trick. If I win in hand I can cash a diamond, but then I have to pitch off dummy and I will lose 2 spades. I can win in hand and then lead up to the Q of spades. If West has it I take 3 tricks on dummy to make. If East has it then I still get my K of spades and my J of diamonds for down 1. Or I can overtake now but then I don't see a continuation that doesn't screw me. East has already showed up with a 12 count, so he probably doesn't have the A of spades too. I decide to go for it and duck in dummy. 8-J-6-7.

I lead the 7 of spades. West ducks, I pop the Q and East plays the 2. I get my 2 hearts and make just in.


NORTH
Q T
A K 7 4
T 9 8
A Q 9 8


WEST
A J 6 5 4
T 6 2
7 3
K 7 2


EAST
9 2
Q 8 3
A K Q 2
J T 5 3


SOUTH
K 8 7 3
J 9 5
J 6 5 4
6 4


Professor Jack agrees with everything I did. Woo.


On the replay they have the same auction. East switches to a heart at their table when at mine he switched to the second club. Declarer didn't have to pitch and still had a club entry to board so when he brute forced his J of hearts into an entry he was good. Making 1NT as well.

Nick: +90
Jack: +90
IMPs: +0 (1 total)

Friday, August 20, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 3

Board 3 – Dealer South – EW Vul

My hand: 9 8 6 4 3 J 9 5 3 A 4 J 7

I pass, West opens 1NT and partner bids 2C. A sneaky glance at my convention card says we play natural defense of no trump. Looks like I should edit the card after this hand, but for now I guess he has a club overcall? East bids 3H, which is apparently 8-10 with 6+ hearts. I pass again. West accepts and bids 4H, and everyone passes.

I'm on lead and have no good reason to lead anything else so I lead partners suit. J of clubs away!


West
K J 7 2
A K 2
K T
K 9 8 6


SOUTH
9 8 6 4 3
J 9 5 3
A 4
J 7



West North East South
Pass
1 NT 2 3 Pass
4 Pass Pass Pass


I led the J of clubs and it went 6-4-5. I guess partner must have AQ over dummy's K? I continue clubs and it goes 8-T-4 of hearts.

East leads the 6 of hearts. Partner should be void, so East has QT8764. I have one trump trick unless I get finessed out of my J. If I cover with the 9 he'll win the A, discover the split, and be able to repeat the finesse if he has a hand entry. If I duck I'm good if he still hops but I lose my trick if he finesses on the first round. If I took this long at a table he'd be able to find that play but I don't think he will now so I duck. He plays the K off board and partner follows with the 7. That's unexpected since they promised me his bid showed 6 hearts... Good!

Dummy leads the 2 of hearts and partner shows out this time, pitching the 3 of diamonds. Declarer wins the Q and stops drawing trump. He shifts to the 5 of spades, presumably needing to lead spades from his hand to finesse. I duck. He plays the J off board and partner wins the A. Guess declarer has the Q after all.

Partner leads the 6 of diamonds, declarer plays the 7 and I win my A. This gives us 3 tricks in and I have a trump trick still, so they're down. I can't see a compelling reason to lead a spade, so I return my last diamond. K-8-2.

Declarer draws another round of trump with partner pitching the 2 of clubs. Declarer plays the 2 of spades and partner pitches the 3 of clubs. Declarer wins the Q, cashes the T in his hand, his high diamond, and puts me in with my J of trump to lead into dummy's high spade. Down 1.



NORTH
A
7
J 9 8 6 3
A Q T 4 3 2


WEST
K J 7 2
A K 2
K T
K 9 8 6


EAST
Q T 5
Q T 8 6 4
Q 7 5 2
5


SOUTH
9 8 6 4 3
J 9 5 3
A 4
J 7


Professor Jack tells me hopping with the A of diamonds was a mistake. I'm not sure why. (At least this time on the replay he followed his own advice and ducked.)


On the replay they have the same auction. The play goes a little differently but ultimately it works out exactly the same with their NS taking the same 4 tricks we did, for also down 1.

Nick: +100
Jack: +100
IMPs: +0 (1 total)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 2

Board 2 – Dealer East – NS Vul

My hand: Q 8 7 4 3 J 5 4 K 7 2 A 7

East opens 1 diamond. My suit sucks, but I like to bid so I overcall 1 spade. West bids 1 no trump and it's two passes to me. I really see no reason to bid again.

Partner leads the A of spades.

NORTH
A
West
J T 9
A 8 3
A Q 8 6
K 8 4

SOUTH
Q 8 7 4 3
J 5 4
K 7 2
A 7



West North East South
1 1
1 NT Pass Pass Pass

I wonder if we lead A or K from AK. Dummy plays the 9 and I encourage with the 8. Declarer plays the 5. Partner comes back with the 6 of spades. I haven't seen the K or 2 yet. If declarer has both it doesn't matter what I play as he has 2 stoppers. If he has just the K I can hold him to one stopper by ducking, so I do. He plays the 2.

Dummy leads the 4 of clubs and I insert the 7. Declarer plays the T and partner wins the Q.

Partner comes back with the 2 of hearts. Dummy plays the 3 and I fly with the J. Declarer wins the K.

2 of clubs. 3. K. A.

Unless partner has another club trick coming we can't set them since they still have two aces and the spade K. At any rate, I play the 4 of spades. K-diamond 3-J. I have two good spades if I get in with my K of diamonds.

Declarer plays the 9 of clubs and partner pitches the 7 of hearts. So much for setting this, as he has 3 more clubs in hand and two aces on board. I need to pitch 4 cards. I want to come down to K-x of diamonds and a spade I think. I start by pitching a heart. On the next 3 clubs partner pitches the 9 of diamonds, the 4 of diamonds and the 9 of hearts. Dummy pitches the 6 of diamonds, 8 of diamonds, and the 8 of hearts. I pitch a heart, a diamond, and a spade.

Dummy came down to aces and the Q of diamonds, so I get my K on the last trick. Making 3.


NORTH
A 6
Q T 9 7 2
J 9 4 3
Q 3


WEST
K 5 2
K 6
T 5
J T 9 6 5 2


EAST
J T 9
A 8 3
A Q 8 6
K 8 4


SOUTH
Q 8 7 4 3
J 5 4
K 7 2
A 7


I ask Jack to criticize my play. He doesn't like my spade overcall. He also wanted me to play the Q of spades on trick 2 to try to win the trick. I think he's dumb, since it only hurts if partner for some reason underlead his K.

At the other table the bidding goes 1D-P-1NT-P-P-P.

North has no reason to lead a spade, so he plays the T of hearts, ducked around, then another heart to West's K.

Club finessing the Q to South, who doesn't return his last heart and instead shifts to a spade to North's A. North returns a spade and South ducks his Q just like I did. Screw you, Professor Jack!

Dummy cashes his K of clubs, dropping the Q. Declarer is up, making 4. I go back and force south to return a heart when he win the A of clubs and they hold declarer to 2. Thanks for the 2 IMPs, South.

Nick: -150
Jack: -180
IMPs: +1 (1 total)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 1

If you’ve explored around in my side boxes you’ll have noticed under the “BLOGS I READ” widget a site called The Gargoyle Chronicles. It’s a bridge blog where a (former?) pro player plays hands against computer AI and describes the bidding and play of the hand. He goes through what he’s thinking which is really useful in learning what I should/could be thinking about when I’m playing bridge.

I went out and bought the software he uses (Jack Bridge) and have played around with it for a bit, but I’ve found instead of thinking more about what’s going on I tend to just play on autopilot. I could think about this hand, or I could just play it and there will be another hand to play! This is obviously bad, but with absolutely nothing on the line I can’t help it.

The solution to this problem, I think, is to try to run the same sort of blog here. I’ll be forced to slow down if I’m making notes for a blog post, and I’ll have added incentive to think things through so I don’t look like a complete idiot all the time. I have no delusions that the quality of play or commentary will be anything close to Philip Martin’s, and my goal is to teach myself and not to teach others, but I think it could be interesting to read. Certainly worth a shot, anyway. As another upside, it’s a way to generate content so maybe I can actually get up to a post a day even if I end up writing a bunch in one sitting and just leaking them out one a day.

So, I’m going to try playing an IMPed match. To do so, I will play a random deal generated by Jack as normal, seeing just the South cards. Then I will have the computer play itself to get a score for the ‘other table’, and then I can compare the two to see how many IMPs I lose. Jack also has a feature where he’ll yell at you for your mistakes, so I’ll get him to do that too. We’ll see how this turns out; the format may well evolve over time. I have all the AI players set to ‘World Championship’ level, which means they play at the level Jack plays during the World Computer Bridge Championships (which Jack won in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2009). I have all teams set to playing ‘Standard American Yellow Card’, but I suspect as I have bidding disasters I’ll edit my card.

At any rate, let’s do board 1 and see how it turns out!

Board 1 – Dealer North – No Vuls

My hand: J 5 4 3 2 Q J 8 4 K T 9 7

Partner opens 1NT and East passes. This is 15-17 in SAYC. Worst case, he’s 2-3-3-5 with 15 points and we should probably play 2S. Best case, we make game in a major. Actually, trying to build good hands for him, we may even make slam. AKxx-KTx-xxx-AQJ ‘just’ needs 2-2 spades. Ok, slam is pretty extreme, but game is pretty easy to build. Pretty much as long as partner doesn’t have a ton of diamond stuff we’re set. No way to find that out though… I think my plan should be to bid stayman and invite in hearts and bid game in spades?

2C – P – 2D – X

Oh dear. The double is lead directive, which actually bodes well I think. Partner can’t have a ton of diamond cards. I have no desire to play diamonds, so I need to pull this double. I think 2S is pretty clear? I bid it and the game alerts my bid with an asterisk. I now wonder what my bid meant, but I’m going to wait until after the hand to find out.

2S – 3D – 3S – S

3D was alerted as preemptive. Both opponents like diamonds and partner likes spades enough to bid them competitively. Seems like we won’t have diamond wastage (guess there was a way to find out?) so I’m going to be crazy and bid game.

4S – P – P – P

West leads the 2 of diamonds.

NORTH
A 8 7
K 9 5
A 9 5 4
A J 8


SOUTH
J 5 4 3 2
Q J 8 4

K T 9 7



West North East South
1 NT Pass 2 1
Pass 2 2 Double3 2 4
3 5 3 Pass 4
(All pass)
1Stayman
2No 4-Card Major
3Lead Directional
4Weak Both Majors
5Pre-Emptive

I should have 3 spade tricks, 2 heart tricks, 1 diamond trick, and 3 or 4 club tricks. Loser wise, I’m definitely losing a heart and might lose a club. Diamonds are fine unless I get tapped out. Spades are tricky, but I’m planning on losing 2 of them. It’s possible to hold it to 1, but also to lose 4 if it’s 5-0 offside. Holding it to 1 means I can afford to lose a club, otherwise I need to find the queen.

My instinct is to play spades by playing ace and out, but I have no basis for that instinct. Looking at it a bit further, ace then finesse the jack is potentially better in case of some 4-1 breaks and only loses to KQ tight in West. Even then, the loss is 2 tricks total so I can still make if I pick up clubs. I worry about the diamond tap though, since I need to give up the lead 3 times… That probably could change the way I should play spades, but I don’t know so I’m going to give it a go. I can’t see any reason to ruff now, so I win the ace of diamonds and pitch the 4 of hearts.

I cash the A of spades. 9-2-6. Then I play the 8-T-J-K. Spades split 3-2, and I have 2 losers. Guess I need to find the Q of clubs.

West returns the 8 of diamonds, I cover with the 9 and East plays the 3. What? I guess I don’t have anything worth pitching so letting me win this won’t hurt them but it seems strange. I pitch the 7 of clubs. I almost want to rough out diamonds now, but I really should get the A of hearts out of the way. I play the 5-2-Q-A. West fires back a low heart. I figure I might as well ruff a diamond to try to get a count on the hand, so I win in dummy with the K. East pitches the 2 of clubs, so he started with a stiff heart. West started with 5 then.
I play the 4 of diamonds from dummy. East plays the J and I ruff low. West follows. I decide to draw the last trump to find out who has it. 3-7 of hearts-7-Q. East returns the K of diamonds which I ruff. West follows with the T. I believe the lead directional double at the two level shows at least five diamonds, so West should have started with a 2-5-4-2 distribution. East was 3-1-5-4.
I cash the J of hearts. 6-9-5 of clubs. With East has pitched two clubs and started with four he should be down to two left, so cashing clubs from the top should be good. They are, as West started with Qx. Making 4 spades.


NORTH
A 8 7
K 9 5
A 9 5 4
A J 8


WEST
K 6
A T 7 6 3
T 8 7 2
Q 4


EAST
Q T 9
2
K Q J 6 3
6 5 3 2


SOUTH
J 5 4 3 2
Q J 8 4

K T 9 7


I ask Jack to criticize my play. He agrees with me all the way! Woo.

Jack has the same auction I do, but he plays the hand differently. He pitches a club on the diamond lead instead of a heart. This seems wrong since it caps you at 3 club tricks. Jack made up for this by ruffing the 4th heart at the end but it seems risky for no reason. I guess if hearts split 3-3 you don’t need to guess clubs this way. At any rate, he didn’t screw up the clubs and made four as well.

It turns out my 2S bid meant weak with the majors, at least 5 spades and at least as many spades as hearts. 0-7 points. Looks like what I had, though I think I need to have more like 5-7 points since with a 0 count and 5 spades I'm just going to transfer to them.

Nick: +420
Jack: +420
IMPs: +0 (0 total)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

WBC 2010 Days 7, 8, and 9 Summaries

A little late, but I came down with something towards the end of the week and into my first week back in Toronto and wasn't really up to doing much of anything but lying around and sleeping or watching BSG. At any rate, brief summary time!

Friday

Le Havre Finals - You may note from my initial schedule plan that the Le Havre finals were Saturday morning and I was slated to play Stone Age in this slot. Well, it turned out that the schedule online and posted at the door to the room said Saturday but the schedule in the program said Friday. Thankfully I double checked with the GM after I noticed the discrepancy or I'd have shown up very confused Saturday morning.

The game itself was a 4-player game, featuring two Dans and two Nicks. I got off to what I felt was a pretty good early start, buying the marketplace and the cheap building firm. I made 12 bricks in the midgame and was able to use the first special building to convert bread + grain into a bunch of money to buy/build the coilery and the cokery. I also had the wharf (vendored at one point though to kick someone out so I could build a boat) and used the 12 brick to build a lot of good buildings. I decided to use my iron with the bricks to build the buildings instead of building iron ships with it like I normally do and it ended up costing me big time.

The special building came out that lets you turn 1 iron and 15 energy into 2 steel, which both Nick H and Dan E used to build the first two steel ships. I was too busy futzing around with buildings to get involved and it cost me. I only had a wooden ship so I needed a ton of food each turn, and I'd turned my bread and grain into bucks earlier. As such I had to slaughter my cows and eat them, which goes against my general game plan which is to ship them to Spain. I didn't have any boats though, so it wasn't like I had anything to ship them on anyway...

The game came to an unexpectedly quick end after that. I spent the last few turns robbing the local court and ended up with all my loans paid off and a lot of good buildings. I had the storehouse so I didn't need to throw stuff over the bridge or try to ship a lot on my useless wooden boat, though I think I did ship coke at some point.

I ended up finishing third after the two guys who built early steel ships. (Dan E won the only plaque as it was a trial event.) They also completely avoided loans, though I think my loan plan would have been good enough if I'd not wasted all my iron on buildings and instead had actually built ships. Taking loans is good because it lets you avoid feeling like you need to eat your cows, but you do need ships eventually so you don't eat your cows later on anyway.

In retrospect I think part of the problem I had was how fast the game progressed because it was a 4 player game. Both my heat and my semi-final were 3 player games and they play a lot differently. (For one thing, you get 43 actions in a 3 player game and 36 in a 4 player game.) I had played a 4 player game earlier in the week in open gaming with Dan E, Robb, and Pounder and got blown out of that one too. I think I need to play more 4ers going forward to try to get a handle on the game.

I was a little bummed out about losing, but I'd clearly screwed up and hadn't played nearly as much as my opponents so it wasn't much of a surprise. We were hoping to get done in 2 hours so people could go play Tikal but that didn't work out, so I had time to burn. I think we ended up going to eat at Applebee's. Afterwards Robb jumped out of the car to play Titan while we looked for a parking spot and took Pounder's badge with him. This resulted in Pounder and I spending the next hour looking for the badge by calling the restaurant and going to all the lost and founds and tearing the room apart. On our way out to the car to search it again we stopped by the Titan room and found Robb sitting there with two badges... If only we had cell phones that worked in the US.

Alhambra - This is a game that came out on BSW way back when we were trying to build a town and my friend Josh took a real liking to it. I couldn't explain why but I really disliked the game then. A few months ago Duncan brought it over to a games day at my place and we played it and I ended up winning and kinda enjoyed it. I played again at the GCBGB event last month and won again. I wouldn't say I really like the game but I don't dislike it anymore, I seem to be ok at the game, and I had nothing else to do. So, I went and played.

My plan in Alhambra is to aggressively buy the two cheap building colours because there are fewer of them. I gladly overpay by a lot to get them since I can lock in guaranteed points if I get just 3 of them and even with overpaying and skipping a money draw they're comparable to the 'best' building tiles cost-wise. Less payoff, but less competition. After buying those I can backfill walls or another colour that I think I can compete in. That's what I did in the heat and squeaked out a close win. I ended up drawing the money that ended ages 1 and 2 I think, which put the hurt on the guy on me left who didn't have a building during the first scoring turn. He almost beat me despite that, so he probably wins if I'm a little less lucky.

Winning put me into the Alhambra semis, which were going to conflict with Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings also conflicted with the Factory Manager semis, and the Agricola semis, and the Race for the Galaxy semis... So I decided to skip it and play Alhambra again.

My Alhambra semi had me at a table with 3 elder ladies and a young Asian guy. Early game I had the choice to buy the second purple building at a huge overpayment (15 for a 9 I think; with the lost money grab I'd be paying more than twice 'market' value for it) or I could pass on it. The guy had the first purple building and had picked up the right amount of money to buy it on his turn for exact cost. The thought went through my head that I should buy it because I was really in a 2 player game and it was worth overpaying by that much to keep it out of his hands. I decided not to, and it definitely turned out to be the wrong choice. He ended up winning by a large margin with me coming very solidly second. All three of the women ended up buying buildings they couldn't place and on a couple occasions bought buildings that were valueless. Not maliciously by any stretch, they were just buying things that they could buy even if it didn't contribute to their 'winning the gameness'.

The game certainly plays out a lot differently if I'd bought the second purple building so I can't say for sure that I'd have won if I'd bought it, but I can definitely say in retrospect that failing to do so did cost me the game. The guy who won played very well the whole game so it would have been tight I think.


I now had a decision to make. Factory Manager is scheduled to last 2 hours. The Agricola semi was 1 hour after the Factory Manager semi. The final was the next day, so winning wouldn't create a conflict. My heat game was done in under an hour, so it's certainly possible to play in that length of time, but my heat game was also the fastest one and every other game took longer than an hour. I'd only played Factory Manager twice and I thought I had a good handle on the strategy and could compete, but I decided not to risk that I'd end up in a slow game.

Just before Agricola started I popped into the Factory Manager room to check on the progress of the games. It turned out they only had 9 people and played 3 3-player games which should be faster than 4-player games. One of the games was almost done but the other two weren't even halfway done. So, probably a good idea to have skipped it, though in retrospect my odds of winning it were likely higher than Agricola.

Agricola semis - Pounder and I both had 2 wins so we were in the top 16. Robb had a win and a second place and found himself in 17th place. One person missing the semis and he was in. We ended up waiting around for a bit to give the people playing the Goa finals a chance to show up... Basically until all copies of the game were set up around the room. Agricola has a fair bit of set-up time, and everyone made it in just in time. I'm pretty sure with that extra little buffer I had a decent chance of getting a Factory Manager game in before it started... Oh well.

At any rate, I was at a table with Randy Buehler (of Magic fame) and two guys I didn't recognize who both seemed like solid players. This round used the K deck and was a draft. (Occupations then improvements both in clockwise order.) I've played K deck maybe twice ever and I've never drafted before. Randy, who was on my right, said he'd never drafted before either, but maybe he was just playing mind games? The guy on my left made a comment at some point about how he plays a lot online and had done tons of drafts.

Before the round the 'experts' at the game were complaining about how there are three 'banned' cards that are overpowered and removed from games with sensible players but were in the decks here. These cards are the lover - occupation that costs 4 extra food but gives you a family growth even without room, the wet nurse - occupation that lets you pay 1 food to get a free family growth when you build a room, and the reed hut - improvement that costs 4 reed that comes with a free family member that you can use immediately but isn't worth the 3 points. My table had all three, as I opened wet nurse, Randy got the reed hut and the guy across from me got the lover. Guy on my left didn't get any of them and whined all game about how he had to play against all the 'broken' cards.

Lefty was starting player and his first action was to play an occupation which allowed him to pay 3 food to play an occupation whenever anyone else did (2 food for the last 3). He picked up some food on his second action (I think) and then played another occupation on his first turn next round which let him play his occupations at random but he got 3 food before paying costs if he did. He then played a minor improvement which gave him 3 food before paying the costs of an occupation. He then proceeded to net 18 food and all 5 of his remaining occupations as the rest of us played out a couple occupations each. As soon as he got all 3 cards in play Randy and I rolled our eyes at his complaints about having to face the 'broken' cards since it was very clear to us that he'd already won the game.

A lot of occupations have the problem that they're just not worth the action and the food to get them into play. When they cost no actions and gain you 4 food they're pretty awesome. The three of us may have gotten one 'extra' guy early game but I'm not sure an extra guy on turn 5 is even worth 18 food total over the course of the game. (He gets to take 9 actions but costs you 10 food. Is 9 actions better than 28 food? (Also, all the 'broken' cards have pretty substantial costs. Wet nurse is the cheapest by far, but I still paid 3 food and an action to get the guy. Lover costs you 6 food and an action. Reed hut costs you half an action, a wood, and 4 reed, which is a big deal especially early game when 2 reed is a first pick.)

A further thing to consider with all these 'broken' cards in play is the demand for the family growth space goes way, way down. Lover boy used it to get his 3rd dude, so he couldn't take family growth until he'd built two more rooms. I never wanted it. Reed hut guy still wants it, but he blew his first 4 reed on the hut so he was going to be way behind on building rooms. As a result, the 4th player gets a huge advantage of basically uncontested family growths all game long.

At any rate, the first two actions my free dude from the wet nurse took were day labourer for 2 food each. Not great. Maybe I should have gone for a fireplace and tried to scoop sheep or something, but that likely delays my wet nursing for a couple turns anyway, and I had a long term food plan. I'd drafted the slaughterman, the house goat, the weaver, the loom, and the milking stool. So I got a food each harvest, a food each round, a food every time someone killed animals, plus food for keeping sheep and cows around. Pretty sweet, but it took a lot of wood to build enough fences to get it up and running and that cut back on abusing the wet nurse. Eventually I got a second use out of the wet nurse and got an early family growth without room to max my family.

All the free food in our game meant we ate a comparably lower number of animals and vegetables which meant our scores were pretty high. I scored 47 which was good for a solid second place, but lefty scored 60 which is a pretty absurd Agricola score.

At one point during the game we had a spectator watching our game and after lefty took a 3 wood square he asked him why he didn't take the 4 wood instead. The answer was that the 4 wood was in fact 4 clay, but I took exception to the question being asked at all. The Agricola semis are not a C class event and the spectator was not the GM, so he had no business giving strategy advice and I asked him not to do so again. A few turns later a different spectator popped by and pointed out that lefty had just bought the well but didn't pay the resources. Lefty paid and then made a comment about how I was going to yell about interfering with the game again.

I then had to stress that there's a difference between enforcing game state and offering strategy advice. In Magic what you'd do is go and get a judge when you thought you saw an inconsistent game state and have them check in just in case you were wrong and it was just an option they chose not to take and by asking about it you'd be giving strategy advice. (When you do X, draw a card VS when you do X, you may draw a card. In the first you have to draw the card and are cheating if you don't. In the second you're allowed to not draw a card and it's just fine if you don't. In both cases you probably should draw the card, but an outside force should prompt you in the first case and should not in the second.) WBC doesn't have nearly the judge manpower that large Magic events do so that's not really an option here. (Especially since the Agricola GM decided to leave the room to rest after Advanced Civ and therefore couldn't be called over for minor things.)

At any rate, he paid for his well and we moved along, and I think he had a better understanding of why I didn't like the first question. The game could have devolved into a tense affair at this point but it didn't and for the most part it felt like the game relaxed a bit. Maybe that was because it was clear the game was over though...


Randy took a bit of time to make a few decisions but despite that we finished the game rather quickly in just under 2 hours and were easily the first table done. Randy and I both had other events starting so we bid adieu to our opponents and ran to try to catch them. I felt a little bad about not helping to clean up fully after the game but it turned out they used that set for the finals immediately afterward anyway and I'm actually a little annoyed when people 'help' clean up my games. I'm a little obsessive compulsive and I have certain ways I like things put away, even if it's "throw everything in the box" like I do with Vegas Showdown. (As an aside, I got some really strange looks when I put Vegas Showdown away like that a couple years ago.)

Randy mentioned after the game that he recognized me from Magic, which surprised me. Woo!

Race for the Galaxy semis - I got to the room a little after the start time, but they were still milling around and I had plenty of time to get signed in. They ended up having 33 people show up, so they ran a quarterfinal round first. They ran 9 tables (6 4's and 3 3's) leading to 3 3 player semis and a 3 player final. I got randomly assigned to one of the 3 player games, with an opponent who was around 11. I proceeded to pick up 5 of the 6 goals and ran away with a large score to two small scores, which put me into the actual semis.

Once there I was paired up with someone I didn't recognize and David Platnick. Platnick is a good guy and an excellent game player who I've encountered several times at WBC over the years. (He beat me in the Notre Dame finals, I beat him in Agricola this year and a Puerto Rico quarterfinals that I can recall.) His first 4 cards were a blue world, a brown world, a green world, and diversified economy. He then started alternating between produce and consume-x2. I tried to end the game as soon as I could but he got to ship one too many times for me. I didn't end up with a single way to ship goods which was my downfall in this game I think. At one point early game I had the choice between settling a 2 cost blue world that drew me a card when it got a good on it and a 2 cost blue world that let me ship for 1 VP. There was a produce called that turn and I went for the immediate card (and Platnick didn't have diversified economy out yet so I didn't know the game was going to be constant producing) but didn't end up with a way to ship after that. The game was very close, I only lost by 4 or 5 points, which may have been enough with the one planet swap. (Though I do end up down a card in that case, so maybe I can't do the rest of what I did...)

At any rate, I can look back and find a mistake I made and Platnick played well so I can't complain about the outcome. Disappointing for sure, but understandable. I don't know how they did 4-6 seeding but since I got second in my game I hope I got one of those spots.

Playing two rounds of Race meant I missed the Wits & Wagers event. Pounder was in the Agricola semis and Robb was passed out so we didn't really have a team anyway. I think Rich Atwater was expecting us to go, which sucked that we abandoned him. 8(

Liar's Dice - I was 'supposed' to be playing the Vegas Showdown finals in this time slot but we all know how that worked out... So I got to take my swing at being the LIAR'S DICE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! I showed up fairly early and actually found a table before they started unlike previous years. This meant I got to sit around for 15 minutes in a room full of bored gamers, many of whom had been drinking, all of whom had a cup with 5 dice in it. To say there was a bit of a din would be a mild understatement. The room was pretty synchronized, keeping a pretty steady beat with cup shakes. It was a little freaky. Eventually we got ready to start, but first the GM embarrassed a nice lady by getting the whole room (240ish people?) to sing her happy birthday. Then we were off!

My table featured, clockwise from myself, a teenage boy, a crazy guy from Japan, a teenage girl, her boyfriend, and an older man who I believe had been drinking. I knew the crazy Japanese guy from Titan tournaments of years past. The game got into a pretty good rhythm... The man on my right would make some ludicrously low bid like 2-5s. I'd bump it up to around expected value given my roll and the outstanding dice, say 9-4s. The kid to my left would up my bid by one. Then the Japanese guy would slam the die down in a jump shift and stare at the teen to his left. TWELVE SIX! It was awesome! He understood how the game was played! (I may have earned the Nick 'Two-Dice' Page with a similar strategy.) He said it with a lot of confidence and I guess he really convinced the girl on his left because she'd raised his bid by 1. Her boyfriend would then look at her like she was crazy and challenge. The first time she lost 4 dice, the second time she got knocked out.

I eventually lost a die to an exacta bid elsewhere at the table, but managed to get it down to 4-1-1. I was the 4, with the Japanese guy and the teenage boyfriend still alive as the 1s. I then got flustered by a 2 star bid on my right. I had a star... Do I challenge? Raise to 3 stars? Or do I bid 4 of something I have? If you assume a completely random dice split, and that Japanese guy will challenge no matter what he has then I have the following outcomes (out of 36 options):

8 - lose 1 die regardless
2 - lose 1 die if I challenge or bid stars
1 - lose 1 die if I challenge
16 - lose 2 dice if I bid anything
8 - lose 2 dice if I bid stars, lose 1 die if I bid 4s
1 - lose 2 dice if I bid stars

Bidding stars is strictly worse than bidding 4s, so I should exclude that option, simplifying the table to:

8 - lose 1 die regardless
3 - lose 1 die if I challenge
16 - lose 2 dice if I bid
8 - lose 1 die if I bid
1 - win regardless

From a strictly random standpoint, I should challenge. I lose 11/36th of a die instead of 40/36th of a die. But it's not completely random. Japanese guy's die is random, but the guy who bid looked at his die before choosing to jump to 2 stars. So, either he has a star and made a reasonable bid or he doesn't and made a risky bid (but one that put me in a tough spot, to be fair). The tables for each possibility are:

HAS STAR (out of 6)
4 - lose 1 die regardless
2 - lose 1 die if I challenge

HAS NO STAR (out of 30)
4 - lose 1 die regardless
1 - lose 1 die if I challenge
16 - lose 2 dice if I bid
8 - lose 1 die if I bid
1 - win regardless

So if he has a star, I lose a die if I challenge and 2/3rds of a die if I bid. If he doesn't, I lose 1/6th of a die if I challenge and 22/15ths of a die if I bid. Assuming his odds of making that bid without a star is p, then I lose (1-p)+p/6 if I challenge and 2(1-p)/3 + 22p/15 if I bid. Simplifying:

1-5p/6 VS 2/3+4p/5, which has an equilibrium point at p = 10/49

So, if he makes the bid without a star more than 20% of the time, I should challenge. If he makes that bid without a star less than 20% of the time, I should bid on. This ignores the fact that Japanese guy might somehow overbid me. (If I bid 3-4s and he has a 6, he might bid 3-6s. Remember, I think there are 2 stars after all by not challenging, and I have most of the information, so it might be right.)

At any rate I didn't go through any of that in my head. To be honest, I wasn't really thinking at all. I woke up early with not a lot of sleep and played a quarterfinal, 3 semifinals and a final. And the room was very boisterous, so I just went with it. I had a feeling he had a star and bid on. I got challenged, and lost 2 dice. I then lost another die, and got down to 1-all, but then I turned it on. We somehow blew the Japanese guy away and ended up me against the teen, with his bid first. He opened with 1-star. I didn't have a star, and I now knew he was willing to make such a bid without one. He was capable of putting the pressure on me, so I challenged him... And he had a 2! Woo!

Liar's Dice semifinal - They had 30ish winners who wanted to play on, so they had 6 semifinal tables with between 5 and 6 people at each. I was at a 5 player table, and was very quickly the first one eliminated from the semis. The first bid around had the guy on my right make a big bid of something I had a lot of. I raised him one, showed 3, and rerolled. I got challenged and it turned out the guy to my right had a 3 and 4 4s but bid a ton of 5s. I lost 4 dice I think. The next time around he had 5 of the thing he bid and I challenged him. Oh well.

Robb had woken up by this point so I'm pretty sure we went to Waffle House where I had Papa Joe's pork chops. Then we went back and played Beep Beep! and Kingsburg in open gaming.

It turned out the cleaning staff managed to puncture my air mattress this day, as it was flat as a pancake when we got back. Partially my fault since I brought too big of a mattress by accident and had to really wedge it between the beds (which were bolted to the floor so we couldn't even move them). So, I got to sleep on the floor the last two nights. I guess it didn't much matter, since I slept 15 hours this night.

Saturday

I woke up around 6pm and didn't much feel like playing anything. I think I was starting to get sick. I ended up sleeping through Ra! The Dice Game which made me a little sad, but oh well. 8 o'clock featured the Tigris and Euphrates semis and I figured I should go see if I made it with a win. Turns out some seconds advanced I think just to get the field up to 12. We played 3 4-player games with all the winners and the best second advancing to the final. Best second here is defined by number of extra treasures second needs to be given to end up winning.

My game featured a former champion, a finalist from the previous year, myself, and a guy from Oakville. We chose starting position based on seeding, which resulted in my picking 3rd after seats 1 and 3 were taken. (At WBC they play where the first two players only get 1 action instead of 2 on their first turn to try to balance starting positions more.) I decided to go 4th to get 2 actions on my first turn.

We played nice to start, with everyone making their own little kingdom and collecting a treasure. Despite picking 4th I got an area of the board with 3 treasures on it, and scooped up a second one a turn after my first. This gave me a reasonable lead I think, and I just focused on grabbing my current lowest number by playing tiles. Someone built a monument and I ninjaed my way into it, and then suddenly the game ended. The guy from Oakville connected up and grabbed the third last treasure, ending the game. My score was 5-5-5-4, which seems like a really low score. But my opponents score a 3, a 2, and a 2. Low fighting, near negligible monuments, and a very fast end to the game meant very low scores all around I guess. The guy who ended the game came second, and was 3 treasures behind me.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the much higher scoring games were also closer scoring games. They both needed 2 treasures, so my opponent came 6th overall and didn't make the final table.

Seeding for the finals was the round robin standings with the guy who came second forced to pick last. (Mental note: Play both rounds next year!) Due to how things worked out this meant I got to pick second. First choice chose 3rd, which was what I wanted. Now, do I want to go first with 1 action or last with 2? I won both my games from the 4 spot... So I chose 1st.

I made my first placement in the same area I did in my semifinals, thinking I could try to scoop two fast treasures again. The guy who went third (multi-time past champion, won both his heats) placed on one of the nearby treasures and made a bee-line for the third. Due to getting 2 actions he was going to get there the turn before I was going to, basically blowing me out of the game. (Well, the other 3 were going to get treasures and I wasn't. Maybe not blown out, but certainly disadvantaged.) I didn't have any green tiles at all, so I couldn't even hope to defend a merge. As such, I decided my only hope was to thrash around and make him regret attacking me. I used a disaster tile on his most recently played tile, preventing him from getting the contested treasure the next turn. I also edged closer so I could get it myself on my next turn unless he fought back. On his turn he fought back, edging even closer. By this point I had 5 red tiles in my hand, so on my next turn I paratrooped into his kingdom, blew up his green dude, and collected a treasure. All the while both of our opponents were actually establishing their own positions quite well.

Now, before the game I'd commented on how I really wasn't very good at the game and had never won before WBC. This may have been a mistake, as I think it's what caused him to think he could be aggressive against me for free points. Now, I don't really know the right strategies to win, but I can definitely handle small scale tactics. I think I proved this to him, as on his next turn he connected up our small joint kingdom to the 4th players kingdom, giving me a treasure and several green points in the process. He said this was a peace offering, and that seemed just fine by me. Really, what it meant was out joint kingdom was going to devour 4th player and we were going to split the points doing so. At this point my mindset switched from defend myself to score points for myself. I'm sure he wanted me to switch to score points for our team, but I'm mean and don't see any reason to throw points to someone else if I can avoid it.

Speaking of points, the player not involved in any of the attacking had built up a pretty large kingdom of his own. He had a monument immediately adjacent to his leaders, who were in a nice interleave formation. His black leader had 4 temples beside it, and all of his other leaders had 3. If we were going to break in, we were going to have to spend multiple disasters to do so. None of the 3 of us were willing to go first, though, so we let him run around uncontested.

He wasn't fighting though, so he was 'just' picking up 4 cubes a turn. We needed to have big fights on our side of the board to outscore him, or build our own monuments. My nemesis was really into the fighting and the 4th guy built a monument of his own. Unfortunately for him he messed up and wanted to build the same monument that was already on the board. As such, he had to build a monument missing a colour leader in the kingdom. I went next and dropped that leader in. I also dropped the other colour in because I had 5 red tiles in hand again, allowing me to grab monument points for a turn. No one hit me for a round, so I got them a second time as well. We were down to 3 treasures on board and a near empty bag, when the 4th guy made his move, attacking into my monument and blowing all my stuff off the board. In doing so he disconnected himself from the monument so he didn't get those points. He also connected up treasures, giving my nemesis a bonus treasure and ending the game before my turn, with an empty bag. If he doesn't make that play I should get 1 more turn and score my monument again. Also, my nemesis doesn't get an extra treasure.

Final scores? The guy left alone (Eric Freeman, he who beat me in the Vegas Showdown finals last year) - 7-7-9-10. Me? 7-7-7-8. My nemesis was 3rd but a fair ways back, and the 4th guy was last. One more cube of any colour and I win... So close!

In retrospect my opening move didn't have enough flexibility, allowing early aggression on my green leader when I had no green tiles to defend him. Maybe I should have gone 4th too, so I could see what everyone else wanted to do before I went. Tigris & Euphrates was a legacy event this year, which meant it gets multiple plaques despite not having the attendance to justify being more than a trial last year. In this case, plaques to the top 2, so I didn't come home empty handed this year. It joins my ever growing collection of second places, and this time in a game I don't claim to know a thing about.

The game went long, so I didn't get to play Slapshot. Robb, Pounder and I went back to Waffle House for an end of week celebration. Also, I had eaten Poptarts at 7pm as my only food for the day, so I needed calories. I went for the chocolate chip waffle drenched in strawberry campote. It's as bad as it sounds... But yet somehow good too. (Not like the omelette which was just bad.)

Afterwards we returned to the open gaming room and played a game of World of Warcraft: the Adventure Game. Much shorter than World of Warcraft: the Board Game, but not quite as good I don't think. Pounder then went to bed saying something about having to drive 8 hours the next day. Robb and I had no such things holding us back... One of us needed to stay awake to keep Pounder up but there were two of us this year so we could alternate naps!

Robb started playing a game of Hansa Teutonica while I went back to the room to check email and do some preliminary packing. I came down and watched the game finish, acting as gamemaster since the players were a little out of it. (Counting actions, tracking who's turn it was, praying for chicken dinner, etc...)

That game ended, but Robb and I still didn't want to sleep, so we went to the open gaming room and finally got in a game of TOBOGGANS OF DOOOOOOOOOOOM! Robb ran into a snowman and got stopped and I jumped the SHARK ATTACK! so the game did everything I wanted it to.

Around 6 we stumbled back to the room to sleep. I crashed on the floor again and was quickly sound asleep. I had a nightmare of some kind and woke with a start... I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 11am, which is checkout time. Robb and I assumed Pounder had set the alarm and I guess he hadn't...We quickly started a whirlwind tour of showering and packing and checking out. We managed to get packed and out only a little after 11, which was good enough for the hotel. Pounder had wanted to leave earlier so he wasn't going to drive as late, but it wasn't to be. Probably it was a good thing since he got a couple extra hours sleep in the bargain and he still got home around midnight I think.